Lily Allen drops out as Orange prize judge

This from Sean Michaels writing in The Guardian ,Monday April 7, 2008

Lily Allen was never the most obvious pick to judge a major literary prize. She's famous not for her views on novels but for a song about London that doesn't even spell out the city's whole name.
That didn't stop the organisers of the Orange Broadband prize (awarded for the best novel in English by a woman). In December, they added Allen's name to a judging panel alongside broadcaster Kirsty Lang, journalist Bel Mooney, novelist Philippa Gregory and the Guardian's Lisa Allardice.

Many lit snobs squawked, wondering what a 22-year-old pop singer would bring to the
table - other than chewing gum and photographers' flash-bulbs. And now,
well, they can stop squawking. Because Lily Allen's out.

"It is with deep regret that Lily Allen has withdrawn from the judging panel," Allen's
manager told the Daily Mail this weekend. "Lily had read extensively
for the first stage of the judging process and was looking forward to the
shortlist meeting but recently found that she was unable to commit 100% to
the role due to ill-health."

Allen did not attend a judges' meeting last month to discuss the 20-book longlist, according to the Daily Mail. Instead she participated by telephone. Allen also missed a
debate last week to decide the shortlist.

"Lily hopes that her withdrawal will not detract from the huge importance of the Orange prize and sends her sincere apologies to her fellow judges and to the individual
authors," her manager added.
The usually playful singer has had a rather awful year. Following a miscarriage in January she is
understood to have broken up with her partner, the Chemical Brothers' Ed
Simons, and was in February the victim of identity theft.

Allen was the youngest judge ever to be included on the Orange panel. "She is a very vibrant,
lively musician and we all like her music," the prize's co-founder, Kate Mosse, said at the time of her appointment.
But the comments of Kirsty Lang, who chairs the panel, make for a melancholy bookend: "Lily has put in a lot of work on the reading and brought a unique perspective to the judging process and we're really sorry to be losing her at this stage,"
she said. We hope that Lily Allen will be able to leave her present woes behind and find happier times ahead.
If nothing else, this strife might be just the right thing to inspire a first novel.